Scientists Have Developed an Eye Drop That Can Dissolve Cataracts

The leading cause of blindness is cataracts, but researchers have developed a new drug that they believe could cure it.
 
Canine eyes with cataracts, before and after receiving lanosterol treatment. Controls (two columns on right) show dogs eyes that didn’t receive treatment. Courtesy of Zhao, Nature, 2015.

Led by Kang Zhang, scientists from the University of California have tested their eye drop solution for cataracts on dogs and rabbits which have been successful and are optimistic that the same can be done for humans in the future.

Cataracts is a major condition that affects a significant amount of the world population, particularly the elderly. It causes the lens of the eye to become progressively cloudy, and if left untreated sometimes results in complete blindness. This happens when the crystallin proteins that make up the lens deteriorate, causing the damaged proteins to form a milky layer. Although cataracts cannot spread from one eye to the other, it can occur in both eyes still.

Although an unpleasant procedure, removing cataracts is fairly simple and safe, but it is very costly.
 
Jonathan King, a leading researcher regarding cataracts, who has been studying it closely for the past 15 years said that "this is a really comprehensive and compelling paper - the strongest I’ve seen of its kind in a decade."

But other scientists are not so optimistic or supportive. Joseph Horowitz, has said the product "is snake oil,” because "It isn’t approved by the FDA. It isn’t approved by the Eye Institute. And only one group showed that it could deaggregate lens proteins.”

The next step is human trials.

The results of the research have been published in Nature.

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